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Michael Scott
'' promoting Cinema in 1966.]] Michael "Mike" Scott (born Michael John Christopher Scott on 8th December 1932, died 30th May 2008) was one of the earliest directors of Coronation Street overseeing 12 episodes between December 1960 and December 1962. After his eduction and national service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, Scott was soap salesman for a short, and hated, time and then became a stagehand with the Festival Ballet which was formed for the 1951 Festival of Britain. After that he found work as a film extra and then joined Rank Organisation which won the bid for the South of England ITV franchise as Southern Television however as they were not due to start broadcasting until 1958, Scott joined Granada Television as a floor manager just before it went to air on 3rd May 1956. In Granada's early, and slightly disorganised days, he quickly gained promotion as researcher, producer and director, mainly on political shows such as We Want An Answer and Granada's historic coverage of the Rochdale by-election of 1958. Previous to that, such elections weren't covered to avoid charges of lack of impartiality. For a brief period between 1960 and 1962, Scott directed drama productions at Granada, including Knight Errant Limited, On Trial, The Verdict is Yours and Television Playhouse. Scott was one of the first three directors chosen to work on Coronation Street along with Derek Bennett (who directed the first two episodes) and Eric Price and was fully involved in the casting and pre-production processes as he reminisced in 1981 when the station celebrated its silver jubilee. In the event, he directed ten episodes of the programme between December 1960 and March 1961, returning for a final two episodes in December 1962. Scott had been dismissive of the serial's chances when he had first read the scripts, thinking it would be of little interest to anyone outside the North of England and he later recalled his error of judgement with some humour. Soon after this, Scott had another career change when he went in front of the cameras while still producing the same programme (not as unusual move as it sounds for ITV at the time, and certainly not for Granada) when he became a familiar face in the 1960s and TV Times cover star with the networked programme Cinema. He also fronted regional programmes and made a historic broadcast on 22nd November 1963 when he gave the very first bulletin to be made in Britain about the shooting of President Kennedy to viewers in the Granada region. Scott had two further associations with Coronation Street in later years: Between 1979 and 1987 he was programme controller for Granada and in that capacity he arranged a then-rare repeat broadcast of Episodes 2282 and 2283 in February 1983 on Channel Four when industrial action at Granada threatened the programme's usual transmission pattern. Then, upon his return to the front of the cameras as the host of The Time, The Place, he also fronted the return of Doris Speed to the Coronation Street set as part of the 1988 ITV Telethon. Scott fell ill with a progressive brain disease in the last decade of his life, most of which was spent in a care home before his death at the age of 76. Episodes directed by Michael Scott 1960 (2 episodes) *Episode 3 (16th December 1960) *Episode 4 (21st December 1960) 1961 (8 episodes) *Episode 9 (6th January 1961) *Episode 10 (11th January 1961) *Episode 15 (27th January 1961) *Episode 16 (1st February 1961) *Episode 21 (22nd February 1961) *Episode 22 (24th February 1961) *Episode 27 (15th March 1961) *Episode 28 (20th March 1961) 1962 (2 episodes) *Episode 210 (17th December 1962) *Episode 211 (19th December 1962) Category:Coronation Street directors